


Trust Me, Kid

by quietprofanity



Series: Yin, Yang and Squiggly Universe [7]
Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra
Genre: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, M/M, Mating Cycles/In Heat, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-28
Updated: 2015-04-28
Packaged: 2018-03-26 05:21:25
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,009
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3838627
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/quietprofanity/pseuds/quietprofanity
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Omegaverse AU. Bolin likes Varrick, but after their near-fatal escape he’s not sure if he can trust him. Unfortunately, they have an inopportune heat to deal with ...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Trust Me, Kid

**Author's Note:**

  * For [CactuarTamer](https://archiveofourown.org/users/CactuarTamer/gifts).



> Thanks for the opportunity!

~*~*~

In his more reflective moments – and, okay, he didn’t have too many of those, but once in a while he could reflect just like anyone else – Bolin could admit to himself that it was pretty weird that he’d always had such a close connection with Varrick, given that Varrick was ... well ... basically kind of a jerk, right?

Sometimes it was easy to forget that. A lot of people he met growing up on the streets were jerks, but usually they always acted like jerks. And Mako seemed like a jerk to a lot of people but he wasn’t, really, if you got to know him ... most of the time. Varrick, on the other hand, seemed nice and smart and Bolin liked talking with him but then those cool things he did were actually for bad purposes and ... argh! Why was Varrick so confusing?

Still, Bolin did like Varrick, even though he sometimes thought he shouldn’t. Varrick could be annoying and gross (what was up with him always talking about his feet, anyway?), but he was a good guy now, right? He’d reformed thanks to Suyin Beifong, and now he and Zhu-Li were helping Kuvira make the Earth Kingdom a better place. Sometimes when they were working, or at the end of the day when Varrick would invite him back to his train car for tea and an awesome conversation about whatever awesome thing he was working on, Bolin felt for sure that he could trust Varrick completely.

Then again ... there had been that one time.

It was back in the days when they were shooting the Nuktuk movers. Varrick had been very particular about Bolin’s costume, measuring him several times, forcing the wardrobe person to re-stitch it again and again, and then having Zhu-Li re-do it entirely when Varrick was convinced the costumer didn’t know a nail from a spider-rat nest in the wall. In the end, though, Varrick had been ecstatic with the result ... which was weird because to Bolin it just looked ... small.

“Wouldn’t I be cold wearing this outfit in the snow?” Bolin asked during the screentest. The camera panned slowly up and down his body, gave Bolin a weird, dirty chill.

“Nuktuk is never cold,” Varrick insisted.

Ginger had attracted Bolin’s attention soon after that, and then so did Korra, so Bolin didn’t dwell on it. It was easy to get distracted by other Yangs in that time. His intense attraction and then sudden, overwhelming fear of Eska had made him eager for a new connection, particularly a physical one. Was that why Bolin didn’t think to be embarrassed when Varrick had followed him into the dressing room afterward?

“Let me help you with those clothes, kid. It’s your uniform, now. You have to respect it.”

“Uniform?” Bolin asked as Varrick stepped closer to him. His perfume was starting to wear off, and Bolin could sense a bit of his Yang scent coming through.

“Sure! We’re in a war against Unalaq, aren’t we? A war fought in the hearts and minds of the public!” Varrick’s voice hadn’t changed, but he’d sidled up uncomfortably close to Bolin, hands dipping inside the pants of the uniform, rubbing against Bolin’s skin as he pushed them down.

Bolin gasped like a fire-ferret being strangled, although his surprise turned to warmth when he felt Varrick’s lips on his shoulder. Unthinking, his passion enflamed, Bolin gave into his instincts and leaned into Varrick’s touches and kisses. Yet when he tried to kiss Varrick himself, the man placed a perfectly-manicured finger on Bolin’s lips.

“Save it for the stage,” Varrick said, a smirk on his face as he turned away, leaving Bolin alone and hungry.

Varrick hadn’t tried anything like that again. When his head cleared Bolin wasn’t sure he wanted him to try, anyway.

Kuvira had strict rules of order on her train. Suppressants for all Yins. Varrick’s new scent-negating pills for all genders. No mating. (Even she and Baatar Jr. slept in separate bunks at her insistence.) So it wasn’t like that was going to happen again. Still, once in a while, Bolin would wonder ...

~*~*~

When Kuvira approached Bolin, when she loomed over him and asked him if his feelings toward Opal outweighed his loyalty to her, Bolin felt himself fold in that way that you weren’t supposed to fold in front of Yangs if you were a Yin with any self-respect. He was cowering, apologetic, tried to swear his loyalty. Then when he got out of the room he told himself he had to act, and had to act fast.

Bolin immediately went to Varrick’s train car, and then when the guards turned him away he found a ceiling hatch and got inside. With Zhu-Li, they made a run for it and … it kind of went terribly.

Mistakes happened in battle all the time -- Bolin had made a number of them himself when he was on Team Avatar -- but Varrick seemed to keep making things worse for them in their fight against Kuvira’s men in the mecha tanks. When they were dragged back to Kuvira’s base in handcuffs, a part of Bolin felt like he deserved to lose, and he just begged her not to torture them.

Kuvira ordered he and Zhu-Li be sent to re-education camps. As Bolin imagined his future life in some dark cell with ripped clothes and his eyes taped open, watching movers about how he needed to be loyal to Kuvira … everything somehow got even worse.

“My only mistake was being loyal to the wrong person,” Zhu-Li said. Even though she was a Yin like him, even though she was swearing her loyalty to a Yang like Kuvira just as he had done, Zhu-Li had a steeliness and strength that made her seem anything but weak. “I was blindly devoted to Varrick, and I looked past all the times he ridiculed me, or ordered me around, or made me clean his disgusting feet, because I thought he possessed the most brilliant mind in the world. But when I met you, I realized I was wrong. Compared to you, Varrick's a fool.”

Those words still echoed in Bolin’s head as he lay curled in on himself in one of the train’s jail cells, listening to Varrick babble in his sleep. When Bolin awoke later, Baatar Jr. and two guards were standing with Varrick outside their cell.

“What’s going on?” Bolin asked.

Baatar Jr. ordered him to go back to sleep, but Varrick argued that Bolin should go with him instead, work with him as an assistant. That sounded better than the re-education camp until Varrick mentioned something about getting his hands blown off.

“Wait? What? I need my hands!” Bolin tucked his hands under his armpits as the guards approached him. “Uh, hold on! Can’t we have breakfast first … while we still have hands?”

They ordered him out of his cell. As they walked to Varrick’s laboratory car, Bolin positioned himself next to Baatar, Jr.

“Um, hey, Baatar? It’s not just breakfast. My heat’s due tomorrow, and if I could just have some time to eat and get my shot …”

“Do you expect me to believe that?” Baatar Jr. thundered at him, his eyes nearly bugging out of his head behind his glasses. “Of all the stupid, childish excuses! You already tried to desert us once! Did you think that we’d let you out of our sight for a minute?”

“But …?”

“Be a man and deal with it, Bolin!” Baatar Jr. said.

As he gave Bolin a shove into the laboratory after Varrick, Bolin couldn’t help but growl under his breath a bit. (A memory came to mind of a day many months ago when he had Zhu-Li had been delivering food and supplies to a town that had just capitulated to Kuvira. They were behind schedule, and Baatar Jr. had been barking orders at all of them to go faster. “Some Yins try too hard,” Zhu-Li said under her breath.)

Bolin’s frustrated mood continued as he assisted Varrick. Baatar Jr. was constantly at their side, glaring and occasionally snorting with displeasure. Bolin really wished he would just go away, but Varrick was even worse. If he wasn’t treating everything like no big deal when it was SUCH a big deal – a really, really, really big deal – he kept asking Bolin for actual help on this scary, terrible Spirit Vine death ray.

“Bolin, do the thing!” Varrick said at one point.

What kind of order was that? “What thing?”

“The thing!” Varrick insisted. “I never had to tell Zhu-Li what thing!”

“I’m not Zhu-Li, okay? Pretend I don't know anything about anything that's happening here. Also, pretend I don't want to build a super weapon or get my hands blown off!”

Apparently he wanted pliers. Bolin couldn’t remember the last time he’d been this annoyed. Yet, it was strange. Despite how angry and irritated Bolin grew with Varrick, once in a while Varrick would make some joke at Baatar Jr.’s expense that would make him laugh and Bolin would think about how in sync they were and ...

Ugh, he really was getting desperate. Why couldn’t Opal be here? Why did Bolin have to screw up so badly with her?

Varrick held out his hand. “Hand me the screw-turn-thingie, would you?”

Well, at least that was an actual direction. “Ugh,” Bolin said as he gave Varrick the screwdriver. “I can’t believe you’re helping them.”

“Funny story, Bolin. I first got the idea for harnessing spirit power when I watched that giant Unalaq monster attack the city from my jail cell,” Varrick said as he turned something on the machine. “That giant monster set me free.” His voice was low as he turned back to Bolin. “Trust me, kid. I know what I'm doing.”

Unfortunately for Bolin the thing that Varrick knew that he was doing was apparently blowing up the train and them with it.

Bolin tried to suppress his absolute, sheer panic as Varrick and Baatar Jr. argued back and forth. A cooler thought grew in his head, one he tried to hold on and keep his sanity. Varrick wouldn’t really blow up the train, would he?

“You’re insane!” Baatar Jr. sneered as he and the other guards filed out of the train car.

“You knew that when you hired me,” Varrick said, his eyes glowing with triumph. “Bolin, do the thing!”

Oh no. Not this again. “Uh ...”

“Unhook the cars!” Varrick exclaimed, exasperated. “Oh, come on! That was an easy one.”

Bolin pulled out the pin connecting the cars, already feeling a joyous relief as he watched Baatar Jr. and the end of the train grow smaller and smaller into the horizon. “Man, that was great!” he said to Varrick. “I gotta admit, you had me going there for a while. I really thought you were going to blow us up. Now, how do we turn this thing off?”

“Oh,” Varrick said. “We can’t turn it off. We’re going to blow up. But we had a good run there, didn’t we?”

The panic came back twice as strong. “What are you talking about, a good run? I’m still running! I like running!” Frantic, he started searching the machine, the train itself, tried to look for anything that would get them out of there. Oh man, he was so wrong to think that Varrick had a plan, that he’d had it together, that he was trustworthy in any way, shape or form ...

When Bolin found the hatch, Varrick was talking to himself about Zhu Li. Something broke inside Bolin. He slapped Varrick hard on the face.

“I want you to know I hate you,” Bolin said. Then he opened the hatch.

It was difficult at first breaking through the wood and the metal, but the earth below bent easily for Bolin. Then the car exploded, ringing in their ears and rattling the earth around them even as Bolin burrowed through it and formed their escape route. When they busted into the crater, dusty and coughing, Bolin fell to his knees.

“Yes!” Varrick exclaimed. He pumped his fist in the air then crawled toward Bolin. “You did it, Bolin! You did the thing!” Varrick grabbed his head, gave him a loud, smacking kiss on the forehead.

It wasn’t really romantic. It wasn’t even something he particularly liked. Yet desire coursed through Bolin, strong and aggressive. The hours before heat were starting, and when it came to Bolin’s anger, that didn’t make one speck of difference.

“I can’t believe Zhu-Li worked for you as long as she did.”

~*~*~

Bolin had turned away from Varrick, created some stairs to get out of the crater. Varrick followed him – Bolin expected as much – but when Bolin took off toward the first sight of green in the distance, Varrick jogged after him, panting hard and flailing his limbs.

“Hey, wait!” Varrick cried out. “Where are you going? You can’t expect me to walk through the desert like this!”

“Why not?” Bolin asked, kept walking faster.

Varrick let out a cry. Bolin heard a loud thump behind him as Varrick fell to the ground. Despite himself, Bolin turned back. Varrick lay sprawled out on the sand, one knee up, the back of his right hand resting on his forehead, his left arm waving back and forth as he spoke.

“So ... so hot, Bolin. So ... so tired,” Varrick gasped as Bolin loomed over him. Then his brows furrowed. He pulled his hand away and sniffed the air. “Wait, are you going into heat?”

Bolin’s cheeks turned red. “I already helped you get off the train, okay? Find your way back to Republic City on your own.”

“What?” Varrick leapt to his feet. “You would leave me here to die?”

“Why not?” Bolin spat. “You were going to kill us both!”

“Well ...” Varrick shrugged, head tilted to the side and his empty, curled hands up on either side of him. “‘Kill’ is kind of a strong word. Now, if you said I was going to let us both die ...”

“I don’t care what I said or what you think I said or what you were actually doing or ...” Bolin shook his head. “Ugh! I said I hated you, okay? Leave me alone.”

Varrick laughed. “Oh, come on, Bolin. You don’t hate me. We’re practically best buddies. I introduced you to the real Republic City! I made you a star! If it weren’t for me, you’d still be half-way to some re-education camp getting your brain fried.” He illustrated the last sentence by hanging his tongue out of the side of his mouth and whirling his index finger outside his opposite ear.

“Or I could be a flattened smudge at the bottom of a crater!” Bolin screamed the words, twisted his hair in his fists. He groaned. “Like, how do you not see how ridiculous everything you say is? I mean, okay ... I once found that really fun, but ... but it always leads to lies and betrayal and hurt feelings and ending up in prison and ... why do I sound like Mako? You’re making me sound like Mako! Why are you doing this to me?”

“Bolin, Bolin. Buddy. Pal. Friend.” Varrick placed his hands on Bolin’s shoulders, started rubbing them. “You need to calm down.”

Bolin slapped Varrick’s hands away. “You’re not my friend, okay? You just want me to help you! You don’t even like me!”

The fake grin melted from Varrick’s face. His eyes grew large and glassy. “Why would you think I don’t like you?”

“Um, hello? All the betraying and backstabbing?”

“That doesn’t mean I don’t like you.”

Bolin groaned and kept walking away. Varrick rushed to him yet again, stepped in front of him and put his palms on Bolin’s chest.

“Wait, look, you’re going into heat, right? You need a Yang like me to protect you, don’t you?”

Bolin let out a long sigh. He was starting to get really tired. “We’re in the desert, man. There’s nobody around.”

Varrick squinted and whispered in his ear. “That’s when you least expect them!”

The sound that came out of Bolin’s mouth was somewhere between a groan and a whine. “You couldn’t protect a pet bonsai tree.”

“Hey! Way to give into stereotypes, there. Who says Yins can’t protect Yangs? And I’ll have you know I gave Zhu-Li Jr. all the water and sunlight she wanted!”

Bolin trudged in the direction of the greenery, away from Varrick, then felt his knees give way as the first pangs of heat wrenched his stomach. Varrick called out his name but Bolin started crawling, winced as his knee scraped against a rock. What was the deal with rocky deserts, anyway? Now the Si Wong, that was a real desert ... it was almost like going to the beach. Why couldn’t he be at the beach?

“Bolin!” Varrick turned Bolin over onto his back, shook him by his shoulders. “Bolin! Don’t give into the darkness of exhaustion and lust. Speak to me!”

Bolin flailed his arms out, trying to slap Varrick away like some sort of uncoordinated penguin. When he got Varrick off he tried to stand up again. His eyes caught sight of a huge rock. Maybe he couldn’t reach the forest but that seemed nice right about now. He walked a few steps, stumbled, then started crawling toward it, collapsing in its shadow.

“Bolin, no! Stay with me, comrade!”

Bolin felt Varrick pulling at his arms, tried to ignore it until Varrick twisted his shoulder. “All right! All right! I’ll get up, already. Knock it off!” He forced himself to sit up, leaned back against the rock. “Just ... just let me lie here for the next twelve hours, okay?”

Varrick sat next to him, but didn’t say anything. Bolin kept his eyes closed, breathed heavily. After a few minutes he felt Varrick’s hand on his knee. A slow, gentle rubbing followed. Ugh. He squeezed his eyes shut tighter. This was playing havoc with his hormones. And yet ...

Bolin opened his eyes ... a little. He turned his head toward Varrick but his eyes kept blinking. He could barely focus.

“Are ... Are you sure you’re a Yang?”

Varrick made a sound that was half-chuckle and half-snort. “What makes you ask that, kid?”

“That you’re not jumping me right now?”

“Again with the stereotypes!”

Bolin sighed and closed his eyes again. Worry gnawed at the edges of his mind. He felt aroused, could feel his body lubricating. The driving compulsion to be knotted would start soon. Maybe he would give in then, not feel bad about it because he was desperate. But for now?

Varrick leaned in close to Bolin. Bolin felt Varrick breathe on his neck, let out an embarrassing, high-pitched moan despite himself. Varrick’s lips were on his neck now, soft and wet. He kissed Bolin’s cheeks, moved in for his mouth. Bolin put his hand on Varrick’s face, blocked him.

Varrick groaned sadly. “Okay, kid. You win.”

Bolin pulled his knees close to his chest, hugged them. He stared at the space between his knees, only looking up when he realized Varrick had walked a few paces ahead, stared out toward the forest, his palms resting on his lower back. Bolin felt strangely regretful.

“Would it really be so bad?” Varrick muttered as he turned back to Bolin. “You’re lonely. I’m lonely. We just escaped certain death.”

“I don’t trust you.”

Bolin looked into Varrick’s eyes. Varrick looked hurt – and he might have been – but he couldn’t argue with what Bolin said.

Varrick sat back down next to Bolin. He stretched his arm out behind Bolin’s neck, pulled Bolin to his side. Bolin felt Varrick’s fingers run through his hair, felt him gently push Bolin’s head to his own shoulder.

“No ...” Bolin moaned.

“It won’t be like that,” Varrick said, his voice surprisingly serious for once. “I won’t touch you. I promise. We’ve both been through a lot, kid. Just try to get some rest.”

Bolin whimpered as another pang of need shot through his stomach. Still, he curled up close to Varrick, enjoying the Yang scent and the comfort it gave him. It felt like the only comforting thing in this place.

Bolin did sleep, a little. It was almost impossible to sleep in the early hours of heat, but his bone deep exhaustion and the little bit of meditating he’d learned from Pema was able to carry him through for an indeterminate amount of time. Eventually, though, he did wake. When he did he was sweaty and achey. His penis was hard and throbbing. With his free hand Bolin rubbed the palm of his hand against his groin. Then he realized his other hand was finger-locked with Varrick’s. He looked up at the Yang with a red face.

“Don’t worry about it, kid,” Varrick said. “Touch yourself. Meditate. Sing songs, whatever you need to do.”

I don’t believe you, Bolin thought. Yet he undid the front of his pants anyway, his erection popping out of his fly. His face was still red as he stroked himself, but soon need outweighed embarrassment. He let himself moan, bucked his hips as he pumped his shaft. A ripple of pleasure ran through him and he threw his head back, knocking it against the boulder. “Ow!” Bolin groaned.

“Bolin! Are you okay?”

Bolin nodded, kept stroking himself. It felt good, even with Varrick watching him. ... Oh, who was he kidding? Varrick being right next to him with that Yang smell right in his nose ... ugh, it was like heaven and he just wanted to ...

His lips met Varrick’s a second before his mind remembered this was a bad idea. Bolin felt Varrick’s arms wrap around him, panicked as they fell back on the ground together.

“Wait! Wait!” Bolin cried out. Varrick moved off him, sat back near the boulder. Bolin panted with relief, and yet there was that throbbing between his legs, the loose wetness, that aching need to feel full and sated. He rubbed a palm down the front of his face.

“Are you sure you’re all right?” Varrick’s voice sounded far away, yet Bolin still couldn’t help but lock onto that voice, feel himself drawn toward it.

“Yeah, sure,” Bolin said. He laid his aching head back on the ground, stared up at the stars. “Ugh, no. I’m not okay. I’m never okay. I need a knot. This isn’t going to end until I get a knot. And then I’m going to need it again. I ... I know how this works.”

He shut his eyes. Part of him felt like he could cry out of frustration. He heard a scuffling as Varrick knelt next to him.

“Kid, look. I’m a genius. I can do a lot of things. But I can’t get out of here without you. That’s why I’m here, because I’m going to need you when all this is over. Not because of what you’re going through now. So, since I need to use you, why not use me? It’ll make you feel better.”

Bolin whined and shook his head. “I ...” He forgot what he had to say almost as soon as he tried to say it. It wouldn’t be wrong, would it? Have a thing with Varrick, feel better, get back to Republic City and never see him again ever ... And yet.

“Varrick, I ... I make a lot of dumb decisions. A lot of stuff I’ve done has got me into trouble or kept me second-guessing myself for months and ...” Bolin sighed. “This heat is going to end, you know?”

“Yeah,” Varrick lay down next to him. “I get it. It’s depressing. I mean ... I didn’t think I was that ugly. But I get it.”

“You’re not ugly. You ... you smell nice.” Bolin closed his eyes again. Varrick’s arms wrapped around him but he didn’t push him away. With his scent, another wave of arousal washed through him. The next ten or so hours were going to be rough, he thought. He nuzzled close to Varrick.

Sometimes, during the night, he could sleep. Other times he had to rut against his hand. A few times he grew weak and pushed himself flush against Varrick, kissed and rubbed against him until his senses came back to him. Eventually, though, Bolin fell asleep for a long time.

~*~*~

When Bolin awoke for the last time, the sun was up – a red orb still close to the horizon. He yawned loudly as he rubbed the sleep out of his eyes. He didn’t exactly feel very well. His clothes were filthy, his pants were soaked, he had a few cuts on his palms and a sharp pain shot through his neck if he turned the wrong way. Although he guessed he’d slept in worse places.

Varrick snored loudly beside him, drool dripping from the side of his mouth. Bolin stared at him for a few minutes, thinking. He could probably get up and leave now.

Bolin sighed. He thought a bit more. Then, with a wince on his face, he poked Varrick on the shoulder lightly, so very lightly ...

“Gah!” Varrick’s arms and legs flailed about as he woke up suddenly, tried to sit up. “Who is it? What’s going on? You hurt me, I’ll sue! I’m very rich.”

“It’s me, Varrick.”

Varrick turned his head to Bolin and flinched. “Oh. It is you. Hi. Uh ... everything okay? Sorry. I fell asleep by the end, there ... Ugh, you’re going to have to carry me. I don’t think I can walk.”

“That’s okay. I just ...” Bolin lost heart for a moment, let his shoulders slump. “Thanks for not doing anything to me, Varrick. You ... you’re really composed for a Yang.”

Varrick laughed. “Kid, I may be a Yang but ... look at me! I’m a beanpole. And I’m Southern Water Tribe – I’m boiling in this sun. You might be a Yin, but do you think I could beat you in a fight? Hah!

“When you’re a Yang and you don’t have strength, you make your way in the world through your charming personality. And money. Money helps a lot too. Possibly more than the charming personality. Anyway, what I’m saying is if you can buy everything you want and used to buy it for a long time ... it kind of loses its flavor.”

A sickness settled in Bolin’s stomach at those words. “Uh ... so you’re saying you used to buy prostitutes?”

“What? No, no. Seduction. Wining and dining. It was fun for the first ten or fifteen years, is what I’m saying. Then it got boring. To be honest, I’m used to not thinking about it anymore.”

“Really? Didn’t you try to come onto me when I was playing as Nuktuk?”

“Oh, I was just trying to get a reaction out of you. You’re pumped full of hormones when you’re a kid. I was taking advantage of that for the screen. Anyway, it settles off. You think mating’s the most important thing now but by the time you’re forty it’ll be just another day when you can’t go to work. It’s all ... it’s all a distraction after a while. Sex. Love. None ... none of it matters.”

“I think it matters,” Bolin pouted. He thought about Opal, a bit, but mostly he thought of Varrick and felt disheartened.

“To be honest, I don’t blame you for not trusting me, Bolin,” Varrick said after a while. He seemed ... thoughtful? Wow. “I’ve been losing a lot of people’s trust these days.”

Bolin sighed. “I’m such an idiot,” he muttered. Then he reached over and grabbed the back of Varrick’s neck, turned his mouth to his own and kissed him.

“Bolin?” Varrick exclaimed, surprised, but when Bolin straddled his waist Varrick kissed him back.

“I didn’t know you were still in heat,” Varrick whispered when they were done.

Bolin rested his forehead against Varrick’s. “I’m not.”

“Well ... sounds good to me, then.”

As their lips met again Bolin felt Varrick’s hands reach for his waistband, felt the still-cool morning air on his bare buttocks. Varrick pushed him back down on the ground, yanked Bolin’s pants off before undoing his own. Bolin tried to get a glimpse of Varrick’s penis, saw it for a few moments – long, thin and hard, bulging a bit at the base where the knot began to form.

Bolin was still sopping wet from his hours in heat, and Varrick entered him with ease. His thrusts were firm and hard – not particularly strong but the movement of the other body over his and Varrick’s increased scent from his new flush of hormones was enough to turn him on. Bolin locked his legs around Varrick’s slender waist.

Varrick grew more aggressive with the hormone surge – he didn’t try to bite or scratch him like other Yangs but his thrusts grew harder and more frantic. When he kissed Bolin again it was sloppy, his tongue moving fast and wet in his mouth. Bolin closed his eyes, enjoyed Varrick’s touches.

Bolin had sex while in heat several times before. Sometimes it was good. A few times it was painful. More than once it was a bad decision. People always described it as mind-blowing: two great hungers coming together in a perfect sating of mutual lust.

And yet this was ... not bad? Really good, even? Like, it was actually nice not to have the distraction of his own lust, the crying need to be mated. It was nice to just feel, just be.

Then there was the knotting. Varrick’s had been there from the beginning, a small lump that opened Bolin when Varrick was the deepest inside him, but now it was growing bigger and bigger, massaging the inside of him.

“Oh! Oh!” Bolin moaned, arched his back and felt it dig into the dirt and rocks below him. “Oh ... oh, wow.”

“Yeah, you like it?” Varrick asked. He actually had a bit of a smirk on his face.

“It feels great. I ...,” Bolin groaned through his gritted teeth as the knot suddenly ballooned out, locked inside him. He curled his toes involuntarily. Bolin felt so full, so stuffed. Bolin was suddenly conscious of how hard he was, how pre-cum was running down his erect penis. He wasn’t ready to come but his legs and thighs trembled at the thought of Varrick’s come filling him.

Varrick yelled when he came, though. He yelled really, really, really loud. He collapsed on top of Bolin when he was done, too, pinning Bolin’s erection between their bodies.

“Uh ...,” Bolin whispered after a minute. “Uh, Varrick ... Varrick, can you help me.”

Varrick held up a finger. “One minute ...” he muttered, and then he started snoring loudly.

“Oh, come on!” Bolin strained beneath Varrick, although the position made it so that he couldn’t get his feet on the ground without possibly hurting both of them. Then he made a more precarious decision and slammed his fist on the ground. With that, he earthbent the ground beneath his back to make a hard and uncomfortable prop, like a stone back of a chair. Then he reached between himself and Varrick, finished himself off.

When he was done, Varrick was still sleeping. Bolin sighed, tired and frustrated, but then wrapped his arms around Varrick and closed his eyes.

~*~*~

It would be nice if everything went smoothly and simply and Bolin never had any problems with Varrick at all after that, but that’s not what happened. In their travels back to Republic City they fought and argued and Bolin had to give him a piggy-back ride and they got captured by rebels and almost got captured by Kuvira’s men, too. Then it all ended with Varrick grandstanding about the stupid movers he was going to make with Bolin as the star.

On the other hand, Bolin supposed it did turn out all right in the end. And with Asami’s help, Varrick did come through and gave them the tools to save the day. No betrayals or anything that involved suicide missions that would kill anyone else on Varrick’s part, either.

Even Zhu-Li had come back to their side. Weeks after the battle with Kuvira, when Bolin found the invitation to their wedding in his mailbox, he smiled and looked for the reply envelope inside. He found it and another note ... on red paper in Zhu-Li’s handwriting.

~*~*~

Behind her glasses, Zhu-Li’s eyes widened in surprise when their butler led Bolin into the living room of their new estate on the outskirts of Republic City. “I have to admit I didn’t think you’d come.”

Bolin shrugged and smiled. “Well, you asked. I mean ... The cab driver had a hard time finding this place but it wasn’t that hard. Although can you spot me a few yuans because I ran up a bit short.”

“Can you take care of that, please?” Zhu-Li nodded to the butler. When he nodded and left Zhu-Li turned back to Bolin. “I just know you have a girlfriend ...”

“Yeah,” Bolin sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. “Opal’s great but ... I don’t know. I think all of us are trying to work out how we’re going to live. Korra’s still trying to patch stuff up with Mako and Asami, for instance. Nobody’s made any commitments yet.”

“Probably for the best,” Zhu-Li said with a smile. “You’re still young.”

Bolin smiled back. “I guess. Everyone always says it makes things less complicated though, and ... Well, whatever. Where’s Varrick?”

“Upstairs.”

Zhu-Li held out her hand to Bolin. He blushed momentarily before taking it, let her lead him into the hallway and up the long, red-carpeted staircase.

“You’re okay with this, then?” Bolin asked her.

“Sure. They always say that bachelor and bachelorette parties are the time to try outrageous things before you settle down, but that usually just involves a stripper and drinking or something. Why not do the real thing?”

They reached two huge wood double doors. Before they went in, Zhu-Li reached out and touched Bolin’s shoulder. “He really does like you, you know. He did even from the beginning.”

“I know,” Bolin said with a roll of his eyes.

Zhu-Li smiled, let out a short chuckle with her mouth closed. “I’m just saying so because I couldn’t help but wonder about myself sometimes.”

She opened the door. When Bolin looked inside he was shocked and yet wasn’t, somehow. Varrick lay sprawled out on the bed – a huge bed with red sheets and rose petals strewn everywhere – wearing nothing but red silk underwear and a rose in his teeth.

Varrick smiled widely, then spat out the rose. “Why hello,” he purred. He crooked his finger toward Bolin and curled it toward himself, urging Bolin to come to him. “Care to congratulate us on the wedding?”

Bolin sighed and started unbuttoning his shirt. “Does this mean I don’t have to buy a present, now?”

“Only if you do this again on the honeymoon,” Varrick said as Bolin got into bed next to him. Zhu-Li stifled a giggle and got in the bed on the other side of Bolin, her dress already crumpled on the floor.

“Aw, come on, man!” Bolin had his pants off now, laid down on the bed between them. “That’s not fair! This is so weird already.”

“Is it really so bad?” Zhu-Li asked as she snuggled up next to him. Meanwhile, Varrick’s mouth was kissing a trail down his chest, his stomach.

“Well, no ...” Bolin muttered. He gasped lightly and closed his eyes as Varrick’s mouth wrapped around his penis.

They’d been through a lot, him and Varrick. Not all of it was good ... maybe not even most of it was good, but at this point, while Bolin had a lot of qualms with Varrick, he didn’t mind considering him a friend, maybe more than a friend.

“Why don’t you give him a kiss?” Varrick said to Zhu-Li. Not in the tones of the sleazy director he had once been, but someone who maybe, Bolin hoped, loved them both.

Bolin kissed Zhu-Li, then kissed Varrick. Then, for the next few hours, he just let himself feel, confident and safe in their arms.

The End.


End file.
